Regular studies in soil science in the British West Indies began with the establishment of the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture (ICTA) at St. Augustine, Trinidad, in the early 1920's. It was to train agricultural development officers for posts in tropical areas of the British Colonial Service. University graduates in science from British Universities came for a one-year diploma in Tropical Agriculture, the DTA that bound the holders proudly together. The first lecture on opening day in 1923 was on soil science, given by F.H. Hardy, who was appointed the Professor in Soil Science. He had come to the Islands a few years before with a degree in geology, and had sorted out some of the clay minerals at a time when the differences were considered due to different mixtures of amorphous materials with kaolonite. Hardy studied physical properties of soils in coca plantations in Trinidad. He spoke of 'root room', which encompassed many physical constaints to crops. After retirement in the 1940's, he taught for several years at the Inter-American Institute at Turrialba, before returning to St Augustine for final retirement. Some ICTA staff were primarily research scientists studying crop production constraints in the different Islands, British Guiana (present Guyana), and Belize. Colonial specialists in soil conservation came out to deal with problems such as the erosion of the flysch deposits in Barbados. These highly erosive deposits are sediments from the South American land mass deposited in sea water. Coral covers the remainder of Barbados. Several Islands have a volcanic history, both older and recent. Sugar cane breeding and nutrition were organized by the private sugar industry with stations in Barbados and in Jamaica. Geological and land suitability reports were prepared for the Islands. Several Professors of soil science came from Britain to serve for periods of 2 to 4 years. This era ended with creation of The University of the West Indies in the 1950's, with campuses in Trinidad and Jamaica. Agriculture, along with engineering and smaller colleges of science and liberal arts assumed the ICTA facilities. A short-lived Federation of the West Indies was suceeded by sequential independence of the Islands, Barbados was first, and they also established a local college. Barbados, with an excellent school system based on the British public schools, was an early contributor of students to British universties and later to UWI. Strong programs in agricultural research continued at the St, Augustine campus. The first West Indian to become Professor in Soil Science, in the 1950's, was Nazeer Ahmad. He was born in British Guiana, attended the ICTA program, and obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Nottingham. He taught at UWI, and after retirement served as agricultural adviser to the government of Guyana. The careers of these two professors in soil science, Fred Hardy and Nazeer Ahmad, will be profiled as examples of the colonial, and post-colonial with the influence of the colonial era.